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Colleges of the South > Newsletters > Fall 2000 Newsletter |
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A Window to the South |
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Fall 2000
ACS RECEIVES GRANT FROM WOODRUFF FOUNDATION TO PURSUE NEW COST-CONTAINMENT PLAN ACS has received a $650,000 grant from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation to pursue a new cost-containment plan. The grant builds on an earlier grant from the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation and will fund projects in the areas of joint purchasing, administrative efficiency and academic applications of technology for the 15 member institutions. "This generous grant from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation will help ACS continue to move forward in a number of vital areas," said Dr. Rita Bornstein, president of Rollins College and ACS chair. "The initiative will enhance our collaborative efforts to strengthen the educational process while promoting efficient and cost-effective operations." The earlier grant enabled ACS to convene groups and individuals to define the mission and goals of a consortium-wide cost-containment effort, to identify needed resources both within and outside of ACS and to establish solid consortial networks to examine common interests. This new grant will launch a three-year action plan to implement and institutionalize specific practices. Proposed implementation projects follow: Joint purchasing This grant will allow ACS to establish a process to negotiate contracts; to coordinate efforts with Emory University, which would add significant economies of scale to joint purchasing activities; to develop, monitor and update an ACS buying group Web site; to conduct evaluations of products and user satisfaction; and perhaps re-negotiate existing contract arrangements. The grant also will permit ACS to retain consultants to assist in developing model contracts and to seek experts at member institutions to create and maintain the Web site. Aside from financial benefits, the joint purchasing effort will keep member institutions apprised of buying opportunities, communicate information about products and vendors, promote communication among purchasing officers and spark improvements in purchasing activities and processes. Administrative Efficiency The focus in administrative areas is on "benchmarking," sharing creative ideas among the institutions in the process. By comparing operations across the 15 member institutions, ACS will seek notable efficiencies, improved operations and cost containment. Benchmarking will take place in three areas: administrative technology, business operations and admissions. For example, cooperative training programs, joint publications, adoption of common listservs and joint servers to distribute information are promising technology applications that may be helpful in the admissions area. Academic Applications of Technology The Woodruff grant also will fund virtual departments in Modern Languages and Latin American Studies (LAS) for the application of technology that will link appropriate faculty at each ACS institution to create a coherent, interactive whole. Often, faculty in less popular languages (Russian, Japanese, etc.) are handicapped by dwindling enrollment, the need for a four-year curriculum for majors and minors, and heavy course loads for limited faculty. Creating a virtual department and drawing on the modern language faculty across ACS can alleviate many of these problems. Through this grant, ACS will build on successful workshops for modern language faculty, broaden the focus to strategic planning for technology in modern languages, and develop and implement collaborative courses for ACS students. The virtual department in Latin American Studies will encourage multidisciplinary cooperation among faculty interested in specific geo-cultural areas. The approach will link LAS faculty with specialties in economics, anthropology, history, literature, politics, art, language and other disciplines. Through workshops LAS professors will be trained in technological techniques and resources to enhance teaching and create an ACS Latin American Studies program. One workshop may stress constructing technological products such as Web pages or course modules, tailored to the needs of all ACS institutions, cataloguing individual faculty expertise and studying the ways to effectively coordinate activities and expertise in LAS. A second workshop may explore the use of multimedia to bring LAS programs from the campus to the consortium level. Cooperative Technology Training The final component supports broad-based technology training for ACS faculties through the ACS Technology Center at Southwestern University. With such a facility, ACS is positioned to address a need to increase technology literacy and fluency among its faculty. Though strides have been made, a wide variation still exists in the level of faculty experience, expertise and comfort with technology. ACS will hold technology workshops throughout the summer. Technology training will be offered at intermediate and advanced levels. All training will include hands-on experience with peer instructors or mentors and extensive follow-up on the actual use of technology for teaching. Funds also will be used to host ACS technology fellows, that is, faculty or staff members on leave to pursue pioneering pedagogical or curricular projects that will be shared throughout the consortium. NEW ACS PROGRAM IN MODERN LANGUAGES With the support of the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation grant, ACS has developed a new virtual department of Modern Languages called ALIANCO, the Esperanto word for Alliance. The three-year initiative will focus on strategic planning for technology in the modern languages and sponsor projects and collaborative courses in modern languages. "This new initiative will enable ACS language faculty to pool their expertise and distribute it across all 15 institutions, thus offering new opportunities for ACS students, while at the same time allowing faculty members in small departments a chance to focus on their unique specialties and teach basic language courses," said Suzanne Bonefas, ACS director of technology. The initial phase of the effort is being led by a steering committee comprised of Sarah Burke, professor and chair of modern languages and literature, Trinity University; Kathy Koberstein, associate professor of romance languages, Washington and Lee University; Pat Pecoy, professor and director of the Language Resource Center, Furman University and Andrew Ross, director of the Multimedia Language Lab, University of Richmond. The following are examples of ACS collaborative efforts that may serve as models for future ALIANCO initiatives.
I am writing to invite faculty and staff to participate actively in campus discussions on information fluency during this current academic year and beyond. Various people will be participating in such discussions, including faculty members, library staff and instructional technology representatives in particular. These discussions relate to a new ACS initiative funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The purpose, in a nutshell, is to encourage a dialogue among faculty and library and technology staff, encouraging them to work even more closely together in improving the literacy and fluency that students develop in terms of the use of technology. Whatever forms these discussions take - the patterns will differ greatly among the campuses - we cordially invite members of the three groups to participate. We need to draw on the brain power of these groups as we gather information on what currently is taking place to assist students in making effective use of technology, what relevant courses are available, what assessment activities are taking place, what faculty development initiatives are occurring in this area and what models of collaborative activity promoting information fluency are available. The groups involved also will assist immeasurably by focusing on the proposed guidelines that have been developed on the subject of information fluency by an ACS committee led by Gary Lindquester of Rhodes College and Derek Rodriguez of Davidson College. Visit the Web site at www.colleges.org/~if. As the consortium explores ways through which it can enable students to cope more effectively with this information age, we encourage - and need - the active participation of faculty and staff on the campuses in this dialogue. If you would like more information, please contact Barbara Halbert, ACS director of library programs, 404-636-9533, or e-mail her at barbara@colleges.org. Thanks for your interest! Wayne Anderson ACS GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS FOR INFORMATION FLUENCY BEING ESTABLISHED The ACS Information Fluency Task Force on Standards of Information Fluency has created a draft document on guidelines for the ACS initiative. In this draft, the task force recommends the use of the Association of College and Research Libraries' Task Force on Information Literacy framework as a starting point for defining and assessing information fluency initiatives on ACS campuses. The following are the standards as defined by ACRL's task force:
As part of the work of the task forces, the Collaboration Task Force has recommended that individual campus teams meet to discuss these standards and to discuss what is happening on campus. The information shared at the campus meetings will be used to assist with planning workshops as well as for collecting information about "best practices." The Assessment Task Force and the Coordinating Committee are working on a survey that will seek information on what standards of information fluency are being used on campus as well as what relevant courses are being taught and what evaluation process is being used. The Curriculum Development Task Force will seek to use the information to build a Web site highlighting best practices and resources. The Training Task Force is beginning work on a model workshop for online course development and will use the survey information to plan other workshops as well. A roster of task force members can be found at www.colleges.org/~if. The task force members welcome discussion about their initiatives, and participation is open to all members of the ACS community. ENVIRONMENTAL CITIZENSHIP FOR THE 21st CENTURY UPDATE Faculty, staff and students involved in the ACS Environmental Citizenship program have been busy. The following is an update of the various undertakings within the initiative. Summer 2000 Programs ACS offered a successful program on sustainable development in Costa Rica led by Barry Allen of Rollins College, Stella Capek of Hendrix College and Robin Gottfried of the University of the South. Students focused on economic, political, historical and social developments in the country. Field study efforts also were included. For more information on the program and plans for next year, contact Allen at 407-646-2647, or e-mail, ballen@rollins.edu. Summer Program in the Yucatan Ed Schrader of Millsaps College led the ACS summer study program in the Yucatan, where students conducted extensive field studies in a variety of settings. For more information contact Schrader at 601-974-1342, or e-mail, schrael@millsaps.edu. Center for Spirituality and Sustainability In July, ACS co-sponsored a program with the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability (CSS) for faculty and students in Assisi, Italy. Among other things, the group learned about the environment and sustainability through several religious traditions. Participants interacted with and learned from representatives from non-governmental organizations that work nationally and internationally in the cause of sustainability. While this year's program was located in a Christian setting, CSS plans to hold future workshops in other religious environments - beginning with the summer of 2001 near a Native American Indian setting in the United States. For information, contact CSS Board Chair Laura Hobgood-Oster, Southwestern University, at hoboster@southwestern.edu, or call 512-863-1669, or contact Jay McDaniel, Hendrix College at mcdaniel@hendrix.edu, or call 501-450-1366. Geographical Information Systems ACS purchased two Global Positioning System (GPS) units. These will prove valuable to ACS faculty interested in GIS initiatives. Building on last year's successful GIS workshop, faculty wanted to purchase the equipment, which initially was put to use this summer in conjunction with an archaeological dig in Israel led by Tom McCollough of Centre College. Information on initiatives and plans for future activities may be obtained from the ACS office. Campus Student Intern Training ACS offered a campus student internship training program, October 13-15, at the Heifer Project Ranch in Arkansas, to assist students in learning more about their roles as environmental interns. Participants learned from the work of previous interns who have engaged in a number of projects. The training focussed on the roles that students could play in collaborating with faculty and administration in producing results that will be valuable to all campus community members. Effective communication and planning were among the skills addressed. 2000-2001 ACS ENVIRONMENTAL FELLOWS ACS is pleased to announce the 2000-2001 academic environmental fellows. Faculty are encouraged to contact them about ideas for environmental activities. The new fellows are: Kathleen Rossman, Birmingham-Southern College; David Bieler, Centenary College; Anne Lubbers, Centre College; Annie Ingram, Davidson College; Bill Ranson, Furman University; Frances Flannery-Dailey, Hendrix College; Erik Maakestad, Hendrix College; Stan Galicki, Millsaps College; Anne Baird, Morehouse College; Ebenezer Aka, Morehouse College; Carol Ekstrom, Rhodes College; Bruce Stephenson, Rollins College; Laura Hobgood-Oster, Southwestern University; Fred Loxsom, Trinity University; Steve Nash, University of Richmond; David Haskell, University of the South; Robert Akins, Washington and Lee University. Once again, these faculty fellows will be asked to play a central and catalytic role for campus activities, actively enlisting other faculty in environmental activities and coordinating the efforts of student interns. Among other responsibilities, fellows are asked to encourage faculty, students and staff to develop proposals for new cross-campus, environmental initiatives that ACS can fund. The fellows are asked to publicize the various ACS environmental programs and to help lift the level of consciousness about environmental issues on each campus. ACS WELCOMES NEW INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS DIRECTOR Teresa Wise has joined ACS as the new Director of International Programs. In this capacity, she will coordinate all ACS international initiatives and manage the Global Partners program. "We are excited to have Teresa join us. She brings exceptional experience in international studies along with great energy and enthusiasm," said Wayne Anderson, ACS president. "She will be a special asset to our program in Turkey since she has lived and worked there." Wise has taught at Georgia State University and as an English teaching fellow through a United States Information Service grant. She served as the program development officer for Georgia State University's Department of Applied Linguistics and ESL. There she was responsible for researching grant opportunities and writing and submitting grant proposals. She also planned and conducted workshops for teachers on topics such as methodology, classroom practices and materials development. Wise earned a B.A. in English from Vanderbilt University and an M.S. in Applied Linguistics and Teaching English as a Second Language from Georgia State University. She also earned a J.D. degree from the University of Georgia.
INTERNATIONAL UPDATE GLOBAL PARTNERS CENTER IN TURKEY OFFERS FALL 2001 PROGRAMStudents can plan now to study in Turkey in Fall of 2001 as part of the Global Partners Program. The semester long program will offer students the opportunity to study in both Istanbul and Ankara to learn about Turkish culture, history, politics, economy, religion and other subjects. Following a summer online course in the U.S., students will travel to Istanbul, where they will take an intense course in Turkish language and begin a core course taught by American and Turkish faculty. Classes will be supplemented by site visits to historic and cultural attractions within Istanbul and surrounding areas. Following Istanbul, the program will move to Ankara, the capital of Turkey. In Ankara, the language and core courses will continue, and participants will choose additional courses from Bilkent University and Middle Eastern Technical University. Both Bilkent University and Middle Eastern Technical University conduct instruction in English. Bilkent University is a private university founded in 1984, with students representing 41 countries. Visit the Bilkent Web site at www.bilkent.edu.tr/. Middle Eastern Technical University (METU) is a public university founded in 1956, and, like Bilkent, is one of the leading universities in Turkey, the Balkans and the Middle East. Visit the METU Web site at www.metu.edu.tr/. For more information, contact Teresa Wise, ACS director of international programs, at twise@colleges.org, or go to www.41colleges.org/turkey/. The deadline for application is February 15, 2001. Global Partners, a cooperative endeavor of ACS, Associated Colleges of the Midwest and Great Lakes Colleges Association, provides opportunities to improve current international programs administered by consortial colleges, and creates a framework for identifying strong programs and expanding opportunities for students and faculty in cost-efficient ways. In addition to the Center in Turkey, the project includes two other international centers, one in Central Europe/Russia and one in Kenya. Visit the Global Partners Web site at www.41colleges.org . GLOBAL PARTNERS BEST PRACTICES CONFERENCE The Global Partners Task Force on Best Practices is developing a conference for June 2001 to explore issues related to liberal learning, intercultural competencies, and off-campus study. Participating teams will be comprised of faculty, study abroad and international education directors, student life administrators and others. Potential conference topics include integrating academic content within cultural contexts, linking on-and off-campus curricula, creating interdisciplinary models of intercultural competency, offering service learning and internships, providing language support and using technology in off-campus study. Following the conference, the Global Partners Project will offer challenge grants to individuals or partner institutions to develop or disseminate innovative models of cooperation. GLOBAL PARTNERS LANGUAGE AND TECHNOLOGY TASK FORCE UPDATE The Global Partners Language and Technology Task Force, led by ACS, held a planning meeting at the Center for Educational Technology at Middlebury College June 26-30. This group, with representatives from ACS, Associated Colleges of the Midwest and the Great Lakes Colleges Association, investigated how technology can support language instruction for students who are going abroad as well as for students who remain on campus. The task force drafted a survey to garner information from the 41 member institutions concerning their current language offerings and uses of technology in language instruction, proposed creation of "mini" on-line courses for students prior to their departure for Global Partners study abroad programs and planned for the collection of available electronic materials relating to the languages offered at the Global Partners Centers. BIRMINGHAM-SOUTHERN COLLEGE BEGINS EXCHANGE PROGRAM WITH E. M. LYON Birmingham-Southern College's Master of Arts in Public and Private Management (MPPM) has begun an exchange relationship with E. M. Lyon, one of Europe's premier graduate schools of management. During Spring 1999 and Spring 2000, about 20 percent of the school's graduate students will participate in this international management education program. In Fall 2000, Birmingham-Southern College will host two E. M. Lyon students. In Europe, participating students will live with graduate management students from around the world and attend a one- or two-week seminar on European management issues. In America, visiting students will participate in an internship during the day and take two graduate courses in the MPPM classes during the evening.
FACULTY ATTEND GLOBAL PARTNERS SEMINARS Three ACS faculty members participated in a Global Partners Faculty Development Seminar in Turkey, Transformations in Turkey: Economics, Policy, and Religion, in June. ACS participants were David Otto, associate professor of religion and department chair, Centenary College; Arthur Knoll, professor of European History, University of the South; and Bruce Rutherford, assistant professor of international studies, Rhodes College. The seminar was administered by The Council on International Educational Exchange, and seminar sessions included An Introduction to Islamic Theology; Economy, Society, and Politics: An Orientation to Turkey; and Islam Modernity, and the Media. A similar opportunity will take place next summer. Faculty are encouraged to go to www.41colleges.org for further information. The deadline for applications is February 1, 2001. Another seminar took place in Kenya in June and July. Seven ACS faculty attended this gathering, East Africa in Transition: Communities, Cultures, and Change. Faculty development seminars are being planned for Central Europe for summer 2001 and for Russia in summer 2002. The Central Europe seminar's theme is Human and Physical Environment of Central Europe. The Russia seminar topic will be announced at a later date. Participants must propose a curriculum project and submit a curriculum project to their deans. Proposals should describe the project, identify its potential impact and suggest a plan for public dissemination of the project. Applications are due October 15, 2000 for Central Europe and October 15, 2001 for Russia. For more information, go to www.41colleges.org/cerus. ACS OFFERS FIRST CLASS IN VIRTUAL CLASSICS DEPARTMENT More than 125 college representatives were gathered at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, in July when ACS rolled out its "virtual classics department" that will coordinate reaching efforts of instructors from 13 of the 15 member institutions. Through this collaborative effort, ACS has created one of the largest classics departments in the United States and a model for other colleges. The first class, to be taught by six professors, Advanced Latin 393: Literature of the Early Empire, begins in Fall 2000. At an appointed time, the professors and approximately 30 students from six colleges will take part in online broadcast of lectures. During the lectures, students and teachers can ask questions and comment in a live chat room. To supplement lectures, students will meet each week on their campuses with their instructors for a tutorial. All of the students and professors engage in asynchronous discussions throughout the week. Guest lecturers will participate from Harvard University, the University of Toronto and the University of Washington. ACS identified classics as an area that needed high-tech help as some departments have only one professor. "With only one classicist, it just really wasn't an option for students to get very much in depth studying classics," said Suzanne Bonefas, ACS, director of technology programs. The professors call the design for this class an I.C.C for inter-institutional collaborative course. The virtual department is called Sunoikisis after an alliance of Greek cities that revolted against the Athenian empire in 428 B.C. To read more about the virtual classics department and the Middlebury Conference, go to the Chronicle of Higher Education at www.chronicle.com/free/v46/i44/44a03301.htm. Participating ACS professors are Kenneth Morrell, coordinator of the class and virtual department, Rhodes College; Miriam Carlisle, Washington and Lee University; Stephen Clark, Centenary College; Hal Haskell, Southwestern University; Anne Leen, Furman University; Rebecca Resinski, Hendrix College; Scott Rubarth, Rollins College; and David Sick, Rhodes College. Plans are underway to offer a similar course in Greek in the spring of 2002. 2002 WOMEN'S STUDIES CONFERENCE The 2001 Women's Studies Conference is scheduled for Spring 2002 at Hendrix College. A tentative theme is Gender and Women's Studies in a Cross-Cultural Perspective. Ideas for workshops and presentations are now being accepted. "The Women's Studies Conference provides an exceptional opportunity for women to gather and discuss issues relevant to their life experiences. In the past, the ideas shared among the participants have been unmatched in other forums," said Karen Gaul, Hendrix College, 2002 Women's Studies Conference chair. Please submit potential topics, workshops and presentation ideas to Gaul at gaul@hendrix.edu. Douglas Waits, professor of biology, Birmingham-Southern College, received the Exemplary Teacher Certificate for 1999 from the Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministry of the United Methodist Church. The award recognizes excellence in teaching, civility with students and colleagues, value-centered education and service to the institution and church. An ecology course is now required for all biology majors at Centenary College. In the future, the biology faculty hopes to add field zoology and conservation biology, and include a segment on evolution in the senior seminar to graduation requirements. Laurence Bitensky, assistant professor of music at Centre College, has been honored as distinguished composer of the year by the Music Teachers National Association. He was chosen for his composition entitled Mishb'rey yam (Breakers of the Sea), a song cycle for high voice and piano based on the Hebrew texts of Yehudah Halevi. Pat Pecoy, a French professor and director of the Language Resource Center at Furman University, has developed a "Teachers' Aides" site that allows teachers to create online activities with little technical knowledge. Go to www.furman.edu/~pecoy/mfl195/aides.html. Hendrix College's Bland Crower's poem, Mourning the Dying American Male Names, was published in the August issue of Mid-America Poetry Review. Hendrix College student David Doyle has been awarded a $22,000 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Grant to study abroad for a year. He will travel to London, Ireland, Australia and Japan to examine styles of dance unique to those locales. The faculty at Morehouse College approved an environmental studies minor to begin in Fall 2000. William E. Troutt was installed as the 19th president of Rhodes College. Troutt most recently served as president of Belmont University in Nashville and succeeded James H. Daughdrill, who retired last spring. Troutt served as chairman of the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education, an 11-member panel charged with addressing public concerns about rising college prices and making recommendations for keeping American higher education affordable. The Rhodes College Bowl Team took second place in Division Two of the National Academic Quiz Tournament, losing only to Harvard University. The four-member Rhodes team defeated several colleges and universities, including Princeton, Yale, Stanford and MIT. Roger Casey has been named dean of faculty at Rollins College. He will be responsible for the curriculum and faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences. Casey most recently served as associate dean for teaching and international programs at Birmingham-Southern College. An environmental major and minor have been incorporated into the curriculum at Southwestern University. A bachelor of arts in environmental studies is offered now, with a proposed bachelor of science being added as an option in the future. Students from the campus-based Environmental Action network (ENACT) and students from the Humans and the Environment course at Trinity University are analyzing solid waste to highlight the steps the university has taken to reduce waste and identify areas that may benefit from increased conservation. The University of the South's Charles Brockett, political science; Jon Evans, biology; Robin Gottfried, economics; David Haskell, biology and Jim Peters, philosophy, spent the summer at the school's Cumberland Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development. They made yearly estimates of hardwood forest conversion and developed a geographic information map that shows the annual growth of new structures in the area. Cleve Hickman, professor emeritus of biology at Washington and Lee University, discovered a new species of Galapagos crab. Clastotoechus hickmani, as his crab was subsequently named, belongs to a group of porcelain crabs named for their shiny shells. Barry Sullivan, professor of law at Washington and Lee University, has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to teach administrative and constitutional law at the University of Warsaw, Poland. In the spring, he will be a visiting fellow at Queen Mary and Westfield College at the University of London, England.
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